


Escape Room

by MsMockingbird



Series: The Mockingverse [22]
Category: Falcon (Marvel) - Fandom, Hawkeye (Comics), Mockingbird (Comic), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Other, Shark!, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2018-12-05 15:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11580624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsMockingbird/pseuds/MsMockingbird
Summary: Trapped in a sinking structure in the middle of the ocean by an unknown adversary, a fraction of the Avengers might be in more danger from what's going on inside their heads.





	1. Entry gained

As he boarded the Quinjet Steve Rogers became aware of two things: the 'not urgent but really, actually, it's sorta urgent' message light was flashing on the main console and all was not well with his team.

That consisted of Mockingbird, Hawkeye, Falcon and the Winter Soldier. They were coming off a fairly routine assist for the FBI: a domestic terrorist group that included several enhanced individuals. The Avengers had provided sniper support, high altitude recon and in Bobbi's case infiltration. It had been Aryan Nation wannabe hold out and the blue eyed blond had been extremely welcome, especially doing a note perfect 'vapid breathless blogger' act. Stark and Jarvis had whipped up a website for the supposed "Purity" blog, making it look like it had been on line forever, filled with AI generated articles that almost but never quite crossed the line into hate speech. Bobbi had memorized several of them and gabbled them back to the 'media liaison', who had been paying more attention to her plunging neckline anyway. The audio from the bugs she had planted on her first run through the 'strong hold' (several rickety trailers bunched together next to a stone and wood cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains) had the whole team on edge from moment one.

It had been a heady mix of vile racism, casual brutality and overt sexism. The third time one of the (all male) crew had reference a body part of "Laura's" (Bobbi's cover name) and what he wanted to do it, calling her a 'decent breeder', Clint had punched his hand through a chair back. 

That had set off a chain reaction of snarling and back-biting amongst the whole crew, Bucky snapping at Clint for being 'unprofessional', Bobbi telling Bucky to insert his metal arm in an unlikely place, Sam yelling at them all to shut up. Steve had eventually sent all of them to their rooms like children still mystified as to why it was even possible for him to do that. These extraordinary people, of all people, should not be _obeying him_. Not little 98 lb art nerd Steve Rogers, as he still thought of himself.

The next day, when Bobbi went back in for the take down, they were calm again. Eerily calm, with an air of emotional static electricity around them all. Bucky kept trying to get Steve into a private conversation that never quite worked out. Sam had taken off as soon as his suit was cleared for the air space and not come down till they were done. Bobbi had gone mono-syllabic. Clint was stone-faced, cold and hard, subtly different from his sniper's focus. Which, frankly, not even Bucky could match.

They'd done their job, to the last Avenger, and the little nest of evil had been cleared out and they should have been on their way home.

But for a message and a gathering storm.

Ignoring his teammates, Steve went to the comm console and hit the play button. Bruce Banner, looking down at something on the table in the conference room. His recorded imagine didn't even glace up at the camera. 

"Cap, when you're all clear there something's popped up down south, maybe a two hour flight for all of you? It looks like a submerged base of some sort that's surfaced unexpectedly. No life signs but the walls are thick enough Tony says he can't be sure remotely. It's not registered to anyone, no markings. Probably not on the up and up then. Can you all detour to check it out? Thor and Rhodey and I can handle things here; Tony and Nat are in California." 

A data file popped up, with a map reference and a small amount of logistical info. Steve looked over his shoulder. Clint and Sam had taken their seats in the cockpit. Bobbi was sitting down, facing towards a wall, her Starktab in hand. Bucky was pacing, light and soundless like some agitated leopard. 

Steve 'grabbed' the data stream and lobbed it to the navicomp. "We're heading there. Rest up, reload." 

Clint tapped the 'door close' button and Sam started the lift off. As they were ascending smoothly into their flight path, Steve added. "And pull all your heads out of your asses." There was collective frisson of guilt and embarrassment around the plane.

Steve lay down on a crash couch, put on his seat belt and closed his eyes, ignoring the irritated mutters coming from behind him, where ever Bucky had parked himself. 

A couple hours later the Quinjet was floating next to a wide metal platform, bobbing gentle in the slight swell of the calm ocean. Clint opened the top hatch and they all climbed out onto the nose, jumping the gap one by one. There was an awkward moment when Bucky reflexively held out a hand to 'help' Bobbi and she gave him a look at would have frozen lava. Clint and Sam both caught it and smirked. 

Steve felt his teeth grinding and had to forcefully unkink his jaw to stop it. 

They all quartered the metal, looking for markings. 

"Anything?" yelled Sam from the far edge after a bit.

A chorus of "nothings" and then Bucky said laconically. "Hatch over here."

They gathered around him, a visible space between Bucky and Clint. This time Steve actually tapped his shield on the deck once, then picked it up again.

"Get your heads in this, now. We'll discuss what a bunch of infants you all are later." His voice was flat and dead in the empty air. Again, he got guilt starts from all of them but they each did their little 'pre-battle checks' and nodded at him.

Steve bent down, grabbed the hatch and pulled it open. Just underneath was an open space. Sam snapped several light tubes and tossed them down, illuminating an open area with metal walls and a mesh floor. Bucky tucked his arms and dropped down -- it was about twice his height to fall--dropped to one knee and did a swift scan. He looked up, tossing his long hair off his face. "Clear".

They joined him one by one. Bobbi had been second, as the best close combat fighter other than Steve, and was now walking the perimeter of the round space, one hand on the wall. There was one door, elaborately locked from their side. 

"This place is...new, " she said as Clint closed the hatch from the ladder, carefully snapping the lock off while leaving the latch intact. That he did it hanging one armed from the ladder was just showmanship. 

"This is printed polymer, not metal," she continued. "No seepage, I don't smell rot or seawater or anything."

"Welllllll, " Sam drawled, "this is a trap, right?"

A nod went around the room. Clint jumped back up the ladder and grabbed for the latch.

Then yelped as it shocked him.

He fell flat on his back, Bobbi jumped over to him, bending down.

The room...shifted. Like a turntable warming up. 

Steve yelled, "Back to back!" but before they could take their positions the floor spun out from under them all, slamming each Avenger against the wall with centrifugal force of the sudden motion. 

A hole opened up in the smooth wall at each of their backs and the Avengers all tumbled head over heels into empty darkness.


	2. Escape No. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers figure out who trapped them on board the strange vessel.
> 
> It dosen't help as much as you'd think.

Steve’s backwards slide and tumble ended in a dimly lit room with the same kind of shiny not-metal walls as upstairs. He hit the floor and jumped straight back up for the opening in the ceiling.

His fingers scraped against the sliding edge of the trap door as it snapped shut. Now he was encased in a box perhaps five feet on each side. He touched each wall in turn, tapping to check for changes in the echo.

No luck. 

He looked around once more, then picked a wall at random, gathered himself, pulled his shield in front of him and launched himself across the space. 

He nearly broke an ankle on the rebound, spinning off all four walls. 

“Darn it,” he muttered.

“Steve?” Bucky yelled through his comm.

Earpieces, according to Tony Stark, were so 2015. All the Avengers had small patches they attached to their skin, just under their ears. They didn’t have unlimited batteries or range but they were hard to spot and used bone conduction. They could pick up sub vocalizations, whispers, even from someone who was gagged.

And they came on when one of them spoke.

One by one the others all sounded off. They were each in an identical room. Each had failed to make the slightest impression on any wall. Not even the monomolecular diamond blades Bobbi carried could scratch it. Sam had thought better of shooting at his own walls, thankfully.

“So, what happens now do you figure?” Clint said casually.

The whole structure lurched. Steve felt his stomach drop.

“You had to ask,” he said sourly.

Bobbi snorted. “Okay, so, we’re in a purpose built aquatic structure made of high tech printed polymer materials that just started to sink. This is a stupidly elaborate way to kill us all. And why let us talk to each other?”

“Who,” muttered Bucky, “ is THEY?”

“I have a theory,” Bobbi responded. Then fell silent. 

“You wanna share?” Sam snapped. 

“Well, no. Not until I have another data point. Which will come when we break out of these cells.”

“Oh cut the coy _crap_ Barton,” Bucky said in frustration. 

“Go fuck yourself, Barnes,” Clint shot back, the undercurrent of resentment and anger that had been simmering for days boiling into the open. “She’s got a better track record at pulling our asses out of fires than you’ve had since you showed up. Hell, all you’ve done it get us into trouble, make Nat cry, get Bobbi beaten up and nearly start a superhuman war between the USA and Russia. I mean, what have you got that we didn’t already have on the team? Other than nice hair and pouty lips?”

“I’ve got training. I’m a soldier, you immature clown. ”

“We already had a couple of those,” Sam said. “Like me.”

Steve stood very still, his teeth clenched, his hands in fists.

“All of you—all Buck!—shut. Up. Except for Bobbi. Spill it. Whatever your idea is,” he hissed through the pain in his jaw and was rewarded by silence from the other men. Bobbi cut in smoothly.

“Five of us, identical cells. Can you two super soliders touch each wall with your bare hands? And tell me if any of them feel like they’re a different temperature?”

Steve did as he was told and realized that yes, one wall felt warmer. He said so.

Bucky responded a little more slowly—the process that created him was a little different and he didn’t quite have Steve’s across the board enhancements—but he said the same.

“Right, the two of you are on opposite ends of the line then. I have one wall that’s colder. I’m the middle of the five cells, and I’d guess that the way to the next section is from here.”

“How can you—” Bucky started to ask.

“I’ve still got my tac googles,” she supplied. 

“So, what does that all mean?” Asked Clint. 

“Steve, Barnes, look at the warm wall, up at the join of the ceiling. Something look a little off to you?”

Steve stared up at where the wall and ceiling met and noticed it looked…slanted outwards just a little. He leapt up and brushed his hand against it.

It was a lip, concealed with a _trompe l’oeil_ effect to be almost invisible. He hauled himself up and saw a small button. He pressed it.

Nothing.

“Well, that was useless,” Bucky grumbled.

“Try it again,” Bobbi said. “But at the same time.”

“On three then,” Steve said.

As he pressed the button the second time, it glowed for a moment.

And a door opened in the wall underneath it. 

Clint fell through it.

Flat on his back, he looked up at at Steve. “Of course you picked the wall I was leaning on.”

“Get up. I think I know the drill now.”

On the opposite wall of Clint’s cell, they found another lip and two buttons. Sam and Bucky found the same in their cell. All four of them hit them at the same time and two more doors revealed Bobbi sitting cross legged in the middle of her own room, staring at a third wall. 

They found another set of buttons, five this time and the last door opened into a long corridor, dark at the end. It sloped upwards.

Clint held out his hand and Bobbi took it, letting herself be pulled into his arms for a brief kiss. 

Steve saw Bucky’s lips thin for a moment and filed that away to ask him about later. 

“So, you wanna hear my theory?” Bobbi said, looking around the room. There was a chorus of nods.

She touched her googles, currently perched on her forehead. A projection appeared on the wall next to the door, a rotating molecule, coloured in red and green and blue. Each color would represent a different element.

Sam leaned in and stared at it. So did Clint, who suddenly spotted something and started to curse with rapid fluidity. Bobbi grinned at him, then looked pointedly at Steve. Behind her back, Bucky’s expression grew more petulant and confused in equal measure. 

Steve studied the projection for a moment and shook his head. “Sorry, not seeing it.”

Bobbi tapped her googles again and the rotation of the molecule froze. “This is the primary component of the alloy the walls are made of. When this stuff became commercially viable the regulatory bodies required everyone manufacturing it to ‘sign’ their products. So if it fails or becomes toxic they’d know who to blame. Turns out the simplest way to do that is work the ID into the fabric of the molecule itself.”

At the next touch of her hand, the display clicked around perhaps a quarter turn, and they all saw it.

Sam yelled in rage. Bucky blew out his breath and went very still and quiet. Steve slammed his hands together.

The lines of colour came together in two letters of red writing, blocky and clear as day. 

S. I.

Stark Industries.

“Which one of us gets to punch him first?” Clint asked in a disgusted voice.

“Oh, I think there’ll be a few targets,” said Steve. “I should have known. Bruce would _never_ be the one making that call. Never. But she wouldn’t want to be the one lying to you directly, Buck.”

Bucky muttered something in Russian that made Bobbi grin. 

“Oh, they’re all in on it. But it had to be her idea, you know that.”

“Why though?” Asked Sam. 

“To teach us a lesson. Things have been going sideways in this little group for longer than this mission. And being Natasha rather than try to, I don’t know, make us all sit down and talk about it like adults she invented this…escape room…exercise. We’ll have to work together to get out, that’s for sure.”

“We will have words, milli moy and myself,” Bucky said, his voice low and intense. “Many words. In a few languages.”

Steve opened his mouth to say something. 

And the door to the corridor started to slide shut.

He and Bucky leapt for it, each of them getting under it at the same time. The edge cracked onto his shoulder with bruising force but he straightened up, he and Bucky forcing it to rise even despite the immense pressure being exerted downward. 

At either end of the line of cells the ceiling opened again and sea water began to pour down. 

Bobbi dove through the door, followed by Sam. Clint braced a hand onto each of the super soldier’s backs and shoved them into the corridor as he crossed the thresh hold.

On the other side, Bobbi rose to her feet and looked around. 

“So, we get out of this alive and then take turns beating up our team mates?”

“Do you think she’d actually put us somewhere … lethal?” Sam said.

“I think she has a lot of faith in us.”

“Let’s hope her opinion of us all is lower than we think it is,” said Clint with a sigh.

“Well, you maybe, Barton,” Bucky snapped, then clamped his mouth shut.

“I’m starting to see why she thought this might be necessary,” Steve said with a sigh.


	3. Second Try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite all their issues, the Avengers are a great team. When they want to be.

The five Avengers set off up the corridor--it was noticeably tilting upwards as the water poured into their former cells--at a brisk trot. Silently, without discussion or thought, the super soldiers took point. Though realizing who'd trapped them made it less likely they were going to run into anything actively lethal, Black Widow's idea of harmless was not comforting. Falcon and Hawkeye were in the middle and Mockingbird at the end. Her tactical goggles had a rear view camera. The walls were the same printed polymer as the rest of the structure, smooth and seamless. As the moved, lights came up around them and dimmed behind them, and then suddenly there was an end wall and a door that slid open to a large elongated rectangular room, the same dull light grey as the rest of the place. 

As they stepped through, Bobbi looked back, a strange thoughtful expression on her face. The door closed and she held up a hand for silence. The structure was still leaning down, towards where their cells were.

"Brace yourselves," she said softly, then pressed a palm into the wall. 

There was a lurch and soft ripping noise and the structure _bounced_ for a moment, then settled into a flat equilibrium. They all rode the motion like surfers.

"What was that?" Sam asked.

"Sea water denatures the chemical bonds of the structure. That was our 'cells' ripping away and dropping into open ocean."

"Is that safe?" Steve said, wrinkling his brow. "I mean for the environment?"

"It should be," Bobbi grinned at him. "I developed the process, for temporary decon chambers during natural disasters. The final product adds nutrients to the water. Be some happy fish round these parts tomorrow."

"Why isn't it dissolving from the outside then?" Bucky asked.

"Exterior has a coating layer of cellulose. Bacteria and things will eat it away in a week or two."

"Why didn't you recognize it before?" he continued, and this time there was no mistaking the accusation in his tone. Behind his head he was the recipient of two angry looks and a very concerned one.

"Stark's really smart and he has access to professional interior designers," she said with a shrug. "He cheated."

"No going back then," said Clint. He'd turned away from the group and was studying the walls of the chamber they were in. It extended well away from them, at least fifty feet long and about twenty across, with closed door on the far end. Closer to them hung a barred framework like a cage wall with a two person wide space in the center. From that point to the other door, the walls had been printed with pin stripes in a grid that covered the walls and ceiling. At each intersection, a small button stood out from the surface.

Steve sighed and stepped through the man door in the cage wall.

Or he tried to. As soon as he did, an electrical charge snapped out around him, making him yell and leap backwards. 

"Natasha!" he yelled and coming out of his mouth it sounded like the dirtiest word in existence. 

"Jump forward next time, you idiot," Bucky said in a snickering tone, then stepped through himself.

Nothing. 

They all looked at each other and then Sam moved forward.

The charge activated again and this time he did leap forward--as he did so, another cage wall snapped down, over the far entrance. This one had no door. 

"Hold up," Steve said. "Both of you come back in here." They stepped back through, Sam flinching as he did. Nothing happened to them but the secondary wall rose back into the ceiling.

"Bobbi, stick your arm through there," Steve ordered.

She did, then hopped back, cursing from the jolt. Without being asked, Clint did the same.

Nothing.

"Huh," they all said at the same time. 

Steve pointed at Clint. "Cross on over."

"Go towards the light Clint," Sam crowed, to Bobbi's giggles. Behind them, Bucky frowned. 

Clint stepped through to no reaction from anything.

Steve looked at Bucky. "Now you."

The Winter Solider sighed and stepped though the doorway.

It slammed closed behind him so fast no one had time to get a hand in.

Two small chutes in the ceiling opened and dropped...

"Are those bags of marbles?" Sam exclaimed.

Clint and Bucky both rolled their eyes at the same time, in the same way. 

"Well, if we were wondering if Nat was really involved in this," Clint said with a laugh.

The lights flickered and suddenly a series of the small buttons lit up, strobing in bright colors. They flashed all the way around the room, on every surface, in a complicated pattern. Then stopped.

"You see that?" Bucky grunted at Clint, who nodded. 

"What?" said Bobbi.

"Never the same one twice," Clint responded.

"And you both saw that? Freaks," said Sam.

"Enough," Steve said, winning a sharp nod from Bucky. "What does it mean?"

Bobbi started to laugh. "We have before us the two greatest marksmen on the planet, Mon Capitan. Do the math."

Clint picked up the bags of marbles and tossed one to Bucky, gathering a handful in his left fist. Bucky did the same and for a moment they were smiling at each other, loose and relaxed and happy. They squared off back to back in the middle of the space and Bucky looked into the middle distance.

 _"Do your worst, milli moy,"_ he called in Russian. 

The lights flickered.

And began to strobe on again.

What followed was a dance, a union of power, grace, and skill that bordered on transcendent. Clint and Bucky spun around each other like they'd been working on their choreography for months. Bucky--slightly taller--snapped marbles over Clint's head with the smooth precision of a pitching machine. Clint threw with both hands, three and four at a time, bouncing them off multiple surfaces to strike his targets. They flipped and rolled, dove and slid, marbles flying like raindrops, never hitting each other or interfering with a throw. Beside him, Steve heard Bobbi making rapturous noises, gasping in pleasure. Sam was cheering and Steve felt his throat catch to see two of his best friends being their exceptional, amazing, awe-inspiring selves.

As they struck the lights, they locked on till the room was glowing bright as day.

As though they rehearsed it, the Avenging Archer and the Winter Soldier ended their display on a dual hook slides that popped them to their feet facing each other, both throwing over the other's shoulder to the last targets.

Every single light on the wall and ceiling was bright white.

The cage wall slid up into the ceiling and the door at the far end of the room opened silently to another corridor, sloping up.

Bobbi shouldered Steve out of the way and flung herself on Clint, kissing him frantically. "Oh, oh oh, oh, if I wasn't married to you I'd propose right now! That was the BEST THING EVER." She looked at Bucky, her face radiant with pleasure as she plastered herself to Clint. "You were both amazing, competence is so damn sexy!"

For a second, Bucky frowned, then his face smoothed into a sort of embarrassed gruffness. "Little more than competent. Um, that was impressive Barton. I think we're lucky Hydra or the Red Room never got a hold of you."

Clint, his hands conspicuously on Bobbi's ass, laughed a little. His eyes were manic-bright, almost glassy, and he was panting hard. "I think I saw god there a minute, Barnes. Nice work." 

Sam clasped them both on the shoulders. "Now I see why we keep you both around. Two snipers, no waiting."

Steve, watching them all from a few paces away, saw a weird shadow pass over Bucky's eyes. In the back of his head, he heard a woman's voice with an English accent, smelled spilt beer and ancient wood. He'd seen that look before, when he formed the Howling Commandos and Peggy had ignored Bucky. Some of what was going on inside the dynamic of the group clarified itself to him.

He gestured at the doorway and they moved into the next area, Steve walking behind this time. Well, he couldn't have pried Bobbi off Clint with a laser, almost rubbing herself on him like a cat in heat. She was chattering gaily, Sam egging her on, Clint not speaking much but his hands never leaving her body. 

Bucky--on point again--kept turning his head and looking back at them, then at Steve. Something dark and angry was building in him, slowly supplanting the joyful camaraderie of just moments before. 

This corridor jogged around in a U and lead into another room, this one a blank hexagon shape. None of them bothered to pause, just stepping though and letting the door close behind them, then riding out the wobble of the last room detaching. 

As soon as they were stable again, Steve clapped his hands together.

"Right you bunch of clowns, we're having this out, right here, right now. Bobbi, step away from the archer. Bucky get your hair out of the your face."

The other four all jerked practically to attention, spaced around the room like tin soldiers.

Steve, very aware that the mantle of 'Captain America' had draped itself over him like a flag, glared at each of them in turn.

"What in the name of every loving HECK is wrong with all of you?"


	4. Heart to heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heart of the matter, starring my poor sweet angst muffin Bucky

"What in the name of every loving HECK is wrong with all of you?" 

Clint opened his mouth and Steve brandished a finger at him like a laser. "Say 'nothing', Hawkeye. I dare you. Say it." There was a vicious edge to his voice that was seldom directed at anyone but Stark. 

Tony and Steve -- as the patriarchs of the Avengers -- would go at each other sometimes. Once or twice a year they would nearly come to blows, spitting and snarling like alley cats, usually over something fairly trivial. The first few times it happened--as Clint had relayed to Bobbi--it had sent the entire team into a panicked spiral. 

Except for Bruce. Bruce, his dark eyes clever and alert, had just watched, and listened, and kept his own council. The third time it happened and Thor had to physically separate them, Bruce'd called the rest of the team together and explained what was going on. 

It was, he'd said, a sign of trust, that they saw each other as 'safe' to be angry around. But also a dominance display. Neither of them wanted to _win_ ; they just wanted to prove they were willing to go toe to toe if they had to. Better, he'd said, to let them have the release. Don't try to hide that it upset everyone but don't take it 100% seriously. 

They could both be scary when they were deep in it and Steve was in full on horror movie mode now, his steel blue eyes sparking, his voice tense and cold. 

Clint's teeth clicked as his mouth snapped shut. Sam was looking down at the floor of the hexagonal room, but he was keeping an eye on Steve in his peripheral vision. Bobbi and Bucky had both turned so their hair hid their faces a little. The uncomfortable silence lengthened, stretched, grew darker and darker until it seemed to dim the lights in the room. 

It was Sam who broke it, his normally clear voice clotted and hesitant. "It's him," he snapped, pointing at Bucky. "It's him acting like he's...got some damn right to order us all around because he knows you. To judge us. After we saved his ass, pulled him out of jail. After we've been risking our necks beside you while he ran and hid from what he's done. It's him, acting like he's better than us. He shot you Steve. He tried to kill, what, like half the team? Fine, he's not an assassin anymore. I'm still not being _judged_ by him." 

"I'm not--" Bucky started to retort. 

Steve cut him off brutally. "Yeah, you are, Buck. You are." He took a step closer to his oldest friend. "Why?" 

Buck flipped his hair away from his face with a jerk of his head, the mannerism still strange to Steve, who remembered him with his military short cut. "Why? I don't..am I? I'm not...I mean..." His voice grew vaguer and vaguer as he went on, with a Russian accent leaching into it. He pulled away without moving, seeming to shrink. Complex emotions scurried across his face: confusion, fear, regret, slowly settling into anger. Bucky'd always had a temper. "If I am it's because...god Steve! They're like a bunch of little kids half the time, joshing around. And those two--" he nodded at the Bartons--"always fondling each other, like horny teenagers. We were never allowed--" 

His mouth clamped shut, but his throat worked on unspoken words. 

"That's not our _problem_ Barnes," hissed Clint. "You and Nat caught a hard break but I'm not going to treat my wife like a nun because _you_ didn't get laid enough." 

Sam snorted, then stiffened as Bucky rounded on Clint. Bobbi had stepped back, away from the men, to stand against the wall in strained silence. "You're as bad as Stark, with that stupid flippant--what we do, all this, it deserves some respect. Some...commitment!" 

" _Commitment?_ " Clint said, his tone dropping, going quiet. "Commitment? I've been in this game since I was nineteen you arrogant ass. Sam did multiple tours in pararescue. Bobbi started her training at _eight_ , alone, in another country. The only reason you've got time on us is you spent it killing people for Hydra.”

The two marksmen were toe to toe now, dark and light, like mismatched book ends. Steve stepped up and shoved them apart in one heave, almost sending Clint into the far wall. "That was cheap, Clint. And unfair." Clint's shoulders came up around his ears but he nodded, sharp and short. "And Buck! Come on, you actually think they aren’t committed to the Avengers? Seriously?" 

Bucky hunched up in a remarkably similar manner to Clint. "No...I mean, obviously not but still...why can't everyone be more professional about it all. Like we were in--" He stopped abruptly, his confusion back. His mouth worked and he bit his bottom lip, looking vulnerable and sick at heart. 

"Yeah, man, we're not going to set the Tower up like Siberia for you," Sam drawled, his tone unkind. 

"That's not what I meant," Bucky responded, but almost under his breath, as though he wasn't sure himself. 

"This isn't the damn army either," muttered Clint. 

Steve grabbed at that straw. "Buck, back with the Howling Commandos, we used to joke around, play pranks. Peggy was with us, remember? Why was that all okay then and not now?" 

Bucky whipped his head around and stared at Steve like he'd slapped him. "BECAUSE I CAN'T REMEMBER THEM STEVE!" he screamed suddenly, his fists slamming into his own temples. His bionic arm, under the leather glove he liked to wear, actually left a bruise. "I CAN'T REMEMBER THEM!" He panted, his face twisted in agony. "I know their names from books and museums, I can see their faces in pictures but I CAN'T REMEMBER THEM. Hydra took that from me and I _let them_. You understand? I _let them erase my friends because it was the only way I could hold onto you_!" 

Steve reached out his hand toward his oldest friend, who started away from him like he was contagious. 

"If I let them think they'd made me forget it all, I could bury you under the scars," Bucky whispered. "I chose to let them destroy that part of me so I could keep you." 

"Till the end of the line, Buck. Always," Steve said, in that same child's voice that had spilled from his mouth on the Helicarrier in Washington. They might have been the only people in the room. 

"Yeah. That's almost what I promised _them_ too," Bucky said, bitter and twisted. "And I couldn't get rid of them fast enough when my back was against the wall." 

"Oh for fuck's sake," snapped Clint. "Are you stupid, Barnes?" 

Sam stared, his eyes wide with surprised horror. Steve turned, his hands clenching into fists. Bucky's face drained of emotion. 

"No, I mean, really. Think about the time line. Hydra had him for what? Seventy years? And the Winter Solider was active for?" Clint looked the question at Bucky. 

"Fifty years, Pierce told me," Bucky answered, slowly. 

"Do the math, as my little bird says," Clint responded. "Twenty years man. Even if they froze you on and off, you fought them for two decades. And they still couldn't manage to break you completely." Clint looked away and something gentle came into his demeanor. "I studied shots of yours, you know. Taught'em as examples, at Shield. That one you made in Romania, in '43? The detonator? Not sure anyone, before or since, coulda made that shot." Clint looked back at Bucky. "I mean, maybe me, now, but not at that range, with that rifle." 

"I got lucky," Bucky said, almost shyly. The distraction, the good memory, calmed him. His shoulders came down, his wide mouth softening from the thin hard line it had turned into. 

"Nah, man. Luck is just something that happens when you're really good at stuff," Clint said, his mouth quirking into a grin. 

Steve felt the muscles in his chest relax a little, feeling like he could breath again. 

"Yeah, okay, great," said Sam. "But I'm still not here to be treated like an amateur or a little kid. I put in my time. I'm not putting up with shit just because you knew each other way back when." 

"I don't mean...I didn't mean...I'm...I'm sorry okay? If I was treating you like that but I'm not used to...to..." Bucky faded out, waving his hands in frustration. 

"Not being Steve's number one girlfriend?" Sam drawled, making Clint bark a startled laugh. 

And just like that the tension was back in full, the four men squaring off. Steve's temper was fraying with alacrity, his jaw tight. 

"What are you people? A bunch of teenagers like he said?" Steve whipped his head back and forth. "Is this all about who I'm going to take to prom? Also, what the hell! Why does it MATTER who I'm close to?" 

"Because it matters. Steve, come on!" Sam snapped back. "You're Captain God Damn America. You're THE hero. I had comic books with you--and hell, with him!--and you picked us, me, us to fight with you! You think that’s something any of us would give up?" 

"I'm a carny hick with a stick and string, Steve. I killed people for a living. It MATTERS. You make us more than just a bunch of bad people working for the good guys. You make us heroes, Steve. ," Clint shook his head. "And yeah, it's not FUN being treated like a second class citizen by Frosty the Snowman over there because we didn't know you before. You make maybe dying for all this...worth it. We deserve better than being shoved behind him." 

They all exchanged glares, back and forth. 

"You don't know a damn thing about me, Barton," snapped Bucky. "I fought and bled and basically died for you before you were even born. You don't know me!" 

"Hell, you don't know you!" Sam snarled. "Why do you get special treatment?" 

"I died for him!" Bucky yelled. "I died! Over and over and over! When you do that then you can talk!" 

"Statistically speaking, it'll be me." Bobbi's voice, clear and calm as a pool of pure water, broke over them all in a wave. They all started, having almost forgotten she was there. She didn't move from where she was standing, one foot pressed against the wall, arms crossed, head down. 

"What?" said Clint, in confusion. 

She looked up and smiled at him but it was a sad expression. "Under the current team structure and in 95% of the probably lethal battle scenarios--barring a singular loner on a mission--the Avenger who dies first is...me." 

All four men got identical appalled expressions on their faces. 

"What do you mean?" asked Steve, over enunciating each word. 

She held up her hand, ticking off points. "Unenhanced human woman. Front line, close combat specialist. Deep cover infiltration, secondary skill set. Primary equipment unresolvable lethal side effects with misuse. Reckless." She moved forward to complete the circle again. "Falcon's in third place because of the chance that his rig fails at altitude; Tony’s second because he’s demonstrably in a unique position to do lethally improbable things and his suits have even more moving parts. But I’m the soft squishy one with no power armor, down on the front lines, trading with bad guys who come armed to fight Captain America. The first Avenger to die in battle--if any of us do--will inevitably be me." 

If the atmosphere had been tense before, now it was like honey spiked with razor blades. The four men looked back and forth, visibly begging each other to be the first to speak. 

It was the Winter Soldier who did, but not to Bobbi. He asked Clint: “You’re not interested in her…elaborating?”

Clint shook his head, hard. “No. If she explains I’ll have to face the fact she’s probably right.”

Bobbi wrapped her arms around her torso, hunching her left shoulder as she did sometimes when distressed. “It’s mostly math, so it’s fairly impartial. Tony and I sat down a while back and worked it out. There are a lot of scenarios where I’m not the first to go—and none of us can predict everything—but if it’s not a percentage of the team, it’s me.” She tapped her foot on the ground. “I’m okay with it, you know. Like I’ve said, I don’t expect to die in bed. All I want is to go out saving people. Preferably you guys.”

The silence fell again, as each of them contemplated that harsh reality.

Steve wanted desperately to deny what she was saying, but he couldn’t. Even just in the few years he’d known her she’d collected some impressive injuries. One day, just by averages, she’d collect one in a place they couldn’t treat it.

Suddenly Bobbi broke the silence again, pointing at Bucky. “Barnes—Buck—I get why what they made you forget has you all twisted up inside. It would hurt like the devil, what you had to do to survive, beyond them torturing you. But, dude, seriously, if I was in the same spot and it was all of you versus him—”she jerked her thumb at Clint”—I’d jettison all of you assholes like a moldy chocolate bar.”

That got a strained laugh out of everything and she smiled, then continued.

“And I get why you’d be scared to let anyone else in—you’re a good man, James Buchanan Barnes. You’re bleeding yourself to death one drop at a time—”

“I betrayed my friends,” Bucky interrupted, his voice flat, affectless.

“You fought for twenty years to keep them. That’s no kind of betrayal in my world. Anyway, that’s not the problem. The problem is you’re shoving us all out of the way because you’re scared if you get close to us you’ll do the same thing. If Hydra gets you back, or someone else does. You think you can’t be part of the team because someone will speak to you in Russian and you’ll go all murder-bot on us.”

Bobbi stopped and looked at Steve, hard. They shared a flashing silent conversation with just their eyes. He nodded at her and took over.

“Buck, you don’t need to worry about that, even if it could happen again. The only reason they had the time to mess up your head like they did is because we thought you were dead. Twenty years? Anyone takes you from us, from me? It won’t take twenty _days_ to get you back. I swear it.”

Clint and Sam both started laughing, Sam pointing at Bobbi. “The Mockingbird Clause!”

“What?” Said Bucky.

“After the Invasion, when she nearly committed suicide because she thought we were dead, we drafted a group agreement. Everyone signed it. It’s got a bunch about funerals and wills and stuff but we added the Mockingbird Clause cause of her.”

“Jerks,” Bobbi muttered, her cheeks flushing.

“No member of the Avengers is dead unless a decade has passed with no contact or their genetically verified corpse is present at the Tower,” Sam recited.

“No body, no death,” Clint summarized. 

Bucky stared around at them, his face blank but a light starting in his eyes. It might have been hope. 

“Barnes,” continued Clint. “It’s true some of us don’t like you much yet; we don’t _know_ you buddy. But, hell, Steve and Nat trust you, then I trust you. I’m sure I can get to liking you, when you aren’t acting like a tight-ass jerk.”

“I trust you,” Bobbi said. “And you make my sestra happy.”

“We’re both soldiers, man. We got things in common, not the least of which is the following the walking American flag over there around,” said Sam. “I trust you too.”

Bucky ran both hands through his hair, his eyes truly alight now. “My god, when did I become the killjoy around here? That’s your job, Steve. I’m the fun, charming one.”

“Well, whatever I’ve got now, I learned it from you, Buck,” Steve said, stepping forward to clasp him on the shoulder. Clint turned and gathered Bobbi into his arms, his face distressed still. She stroked his hair like an agitated puppy, murmuring into his ear till he sighed and relaxed.

Sam, shaking his head, went to examine the doors on the wall. As he touched the frame of one, it slid open onto another sloping corridor. They all looked over, then one by one did the same. A single door opened for each of them.

“I guess we do through on our own?” Clint said.

“That seems…wrong,” Bucky responded, slowly.

“Yeah, we just have our togetherness moment and now we’re supposed to split up?” Same shook his head.

“Agreed,” said Steve, then looked up at the ceiling. Unlike the other rooms, this one was dimly lit, throwing odd shadows against the bulkheads. Without speaking, Bobbi stepped up, put her foot in his hands and let herself be raised onto his shoulders.

She placed her hand on ceiling and a ring of light blue LEDs started to glow on the ceiling. Dropping down, Steve hoisted Sam next. Deep red LEDs lit up in the ring. Bucky let Clint stand on him. Clint’s lights were purple. Sam and Clint then raised Bucky up and his were white. Lastly, symbolically, they all supported Steve as a group, Clint and Bobbi on one foot, Sam and Bucky on the other. 

The four lights started to flash in order, then the ceiling irised open above them onto a long tunnel with light at the top. Steve dropped back down just in time for the floor to shift and raise them into the tube. 

When they got to the top it took them all a minute to process what they were seeing.

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” muttered Sam.


	5. End Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha has a very warped sense of humor.

They were facing a single large room, most of it a water tank with the level just below the surface of the decking. The water was clear but deep and unlit, descending from blue to black in a few feet. At the far end of the very large room, large enough that even Steve and Bucky couldn't jump it, was another strip of decking. That side of the room ended in a wall with a door, the word 'Vikhod" above in in glowing letters. Next to that was a recessed lever behind a clear sheet of glass.

"So, we just swim across?' said Steve, stepping forward. His foot was hovering over the water when Clint and Bucky lunged at him at the same time, both grabbing an arm and hauling him back roughly. "Guys, what the--?"

A few feet from where they were standing, a sharply triangular fin broke the surface of the water, edged in black and a pale sallow grey underneath that. It curved close enough to them they could all make out the massive stocky body skimming under the surface before it turned and dove deeper into the black of the unlit water.

As one, they all shivered.

"Where the fuck did she get a shark?" Sam said in a quiet, even tone.

"She probably has three of them on speed dial, as a professional courtesy," Bobbi said equally softly.

Steve shook off Clint and Bucky, then turned around and threw a weaponized eyebrow at them. They both looked shaken and confused.

"I don't know," Clint eventually said. "I guess I saw something moving? Or it just seemed too easy or..." He trailed off. 

Bucky shrugged, and managed a weak "I know her sense of humor?"

Bobbi had moved to the edge of the water and gently agitated the surface with one hand.

The apex predator surfaced near by, glided past and disappeared again.

"Bull shark," she said decisively. "Muzzle is distinctive. Very fast, very strong and nearly psychotically aggressive. The serial killers of the sea. And even as a last resort we can't shoot it or stab it ."

"Why not?" Sam asked, incredulously.

"It's a pregnant female," she responded, looking at Steve who gave a firm nod, his expression appalled and worried. 

"I hate you, Nat," Clint said in a tired voice.

"Uh, not to go back to us all being mad at each other, but how do you know that Ba--Bobbi?" Bucky asked, using her name almost shyly.

"Marine biologist was one of my major covers, in Shield. Be amazed how close military installations will let you get in a boat if they think you _really care_ about coral. Also, I like sharks. Big fan of any species where the females are dominant." She threw a sly look at Clint.

"I'm a huge fan of that myself," he responded, slapping her ass lightly.

"Break it up," said Steve comfortably.

"So, we can't hurt the expecting momma killer fish," Sam said. "What do we do, have one of them--"he gestured at the super soldiers--"wrestle it while we swim across?"

"That would work I guess, but it seems--" Steve stopped, searching for the right word.

Bucky supplied it. "Inelegant. Milli Moy is an elegant woman. I don't think our answer is anything crude or brutal. She'll punish us for trying."

Clint unshipped his bow and snapped the arms out. "I've got a grappling line here, I'll get the anchor into that niche with the lever and we can all climb or run across." In one smooth motion he suited deed to word and one of his black shafted arrows was speeding across the water.

And then it was gone in a puff of smoke via a single high energy repulsor beam from the ceiling.

"So, that's out then," Clint sighed.

"Maybe, maybe not,' said Sam. He'd been examining the wall by the door they'd come in through. A door they all realized now was set off center, unlike every other door they'd seen. Where the door should have been Sam had found a small sliding panel and behind it a single arrow sitting in a long alcove, point towards them and fletching lost in the darkness. It was made of the same material as the walls. Clint grinned and picked it up.

As he pulled it out it trailed a chord from the depths of the shadows behind it. Bobbi grabbed the length and began spooling it out. It went on and on, piling onto the floor in a thick coil and then snapped to an abrupt stop, appearing to be anchored somewhere in the wall. Bucky stepped up and grabbed it in his bionic arm and heaved, hard, several times. It stayed put, not even a little stretch or shifting.

Clint, in the mean time, was minutely examining the arrow itself. It was made of the same extruded material as the whole structure, and appeared to be of the exact same dimensions as his normal arrows. But he was muttering unhappily.

"It's light, come on Nat you know better than that, it's like nearly half an ounce light, geez lady." He looked up with a disgruntled expression. "It's...acceptable. Barely. But the tip's flattened and made of the same material and I'm not a miracle worker. It's not going to penetrate these walls."

Steve went to the edge of the water and stared intently at the wall directly opposite the arrow niche. "I think you're supposed to hit that." He pointed as he said it. Clint and Bucky both looked over and made "ahhh, right" noises. Bobbi and Sam exchanged disgusted looks.

"His stupid asshole brother even got the Barton eyes," Bobbi muttered at Sam. "I mean, those two are enhanced, but it's not fair the whole wretched bloodline has that eyesight."

"About as fair as your big brain being able to pick up degrees like candy wrappers, little bird," Clint shot back.

"I'm a piker compared to Bruce," she mumbled in protest, but with a grin. "What are you mutants all seeing over there?"

"Concentric rings around an arrow sized hole in the wall," Bucky supplied.

"So, Clint puts the arrow through that, the line stretches taut and we all tightrope walk over the shark?" said Sam.

There was a pause as they all looked at each other, then a collective, simultaneous "Too easy". 

"I'm voting for the room starting to fill with lava," said Bobbi. 

"More sharks? Like, jumping sharks or something?" Sam offered.

"I am going to break her exquisite swan-like neck," Bucky hissed out.

"You know, I'm glad to know I'm not the only man who's said that about her," Clint nodded at him. 

Steve rolled his shoulders and sighed. "Nothing to do but take the shot Clint. And be ready for anything folks."

They fanned out around the archer, who carefully settled the arrow in his grip and pulled back his bow string. He made a couple of minute adjustments, as though he weren't holding a two hundred thirty pound recurve bow at full draw, then sighed.

His whole body went rock-still, a marble statue of a man. Something cool and level and inhuman came into his eyes. Hawkeye took over.

The only motion he made was to uncurl his fingers, a small, swift thing like a snake striking at its prey. 

Bow string flicked forward, sending the arrow on its perfect flat arc over the water, over the tip of the fin poking from the surface and neatly embedded itself in the tiny hole in the other wall. 

The rope unspooled behind it and snapped taught...and then with an audible _click_ detached from whatever was holding it.

Super soldier reflexes activated. Bucky and Steve both dove for the line as it whipped past them, Steve catching it at the full extension of his left arm, teetering on the edge of the water. Bucky snatched at the line, missed, then turned his motion into a sweeping, grunting grab for Steve's right hand, flung out for balance. For an arrested moment, as Hawkeye 'released' Clint from his mental grasp and Bobbi and Sam were only halfway through their own aborted lunges at the line, Steve was suspended by the strength of his best friend's bionic arm over the pool of water.

Deep down in the black, a bulky shape arrowed up towards him, looking slow to his enhanced eyes. His head knew it was moving at enormous speeds. 

The world spun slowly as Steve started to slide forward, the slick deck offering no purchase for either his or Bucky's feet. The teeth below gaped open, inhumanly beautiful and viscerally terrifying in the way only a perfect predator can be.

He heard Bobbi make a noise like a shriek, almost girly, and then he was being hauled back from the edge again, landing in a pile of bodies. The other three had grabbed Bucky and pulled, the sheer weight of numbers making the difference. Cold salt water

hit his face as the shark surfaced right where he had been hanging, dagger mouth snapping shut on empty air. 

"Get off me you elephants!" Bobbi yelled from somewhere under the pile. Avengers sprang in all directions except for Clint, who was sprawled half over his wife, his big hand releasing Bucky's leg. 

"I said get off you paleolithic thug!" snarled Bobbi.

Clint stretched and settled into her diaphragm with a sigh. "You didn't have a problem with me being here last night." He murmured in a sweet tone.

"If you ever want to be on top again--"

Clint hopped backwards off his wife and reached out a hand to her, which she eschewed in favor of a helicopter twirl of her legs to standing. She grunted and rubbed her stomach. "You guys are really heavy."

"Sorry," said the other three at the same time. Steve still had the line clutched in his hand. Something tickled his wrist, a small tag attached to the end. He turned it over and read aloud the words "Max Weight: 180 pounds."

"Nat, you evil wench," Bobbi said. 

Sam grinned at her. "Ha, I was wondering when I got my chance to show off."

Clint looked from him to her. "You don't weigh 180 though, little bird," he said, confused.

"Aw," she grinned at him, a dimple flashing for a moment. "My hawk, that's so sweet of you. But soaking wet I'm 183 right now. I'm usually between 182-190. Remember, you bruiser, I'm only little compared to you."

"So, what are we going to do then?" he responded. "I mean if you're too heavy."

"I weigh 175, Clint," Sam supplied. "Upper weight limit for the Falcon rig is 180 in fact."

"Really?" Clint said, shocked. "I seriously would've thought..." He looked them both up and down a moment. 

Bobbi grinned. "I'm the dead median in weight on the team Clint, now that Bucky's here. Him, Steve, Thor and you are heavier than me; Nat, Bruce, Tony and Sam are lighter. It's just that it's muscle mass and bone and it's proportional so I look smaller than I am." 

Sam was shrugging out of his flight suit and weapons, bundling them up and handing them off to Bobbi as he did.

Steve and Bucky, both smiling at the exchange, were testing to see if one of them could hold the rope taught without sliding. Even anchoring each other they didn't weight enough. 

When Sam was down to his street clothes Steve looked over at the Bartons. "I think we all have to hold this together to keep it above the water. That would fit the theme certainly."

"Hang on," said Bucky, then took a deep breath and hopped straight up like a bunny. On his way down he curled up and punched his bionic arm into the smooth deck surface. His fingers splayed out on impact and dug deep into the deck. His hand clenched and held. "Okay, that should work."

Bobbi looked intently at the spot he'd hit. "Clever boy," she breathed. 

Steve realized Bucky'd just hit the spot same of the seawater had splashed when the shark lunged at him. And Bobbi'd said earlier that sea water denatured the composite. "How long do we have? Before it breaks down?"

Bobbi knelt and touched the deck, then pulled a cloth out of a pouch and soaked up the rest of the liquid. "I think it'll hold stable right now. The grip strength on his hand will have punched through to the levels that weren't affected and there won't be enough seawater on his fingertips to speed the reaction. Like I said, clever boy." She clipped him on the shoulder and he looked up at her, his expression light and happy.

Steve's stomach clenched. That was the Bucky he knew, his old friend, irrepressible, charming. Any doubts he had about Bucky being on the team were fading fast. It wasn't driving Bucky away to face what the Winter Soldier had done. It was bringing him back.

They wrapped the line around Bucky's forearm where he was crouched, then passed it to Steve who pulled it taut. Behind him the Barton's each took a solid grip. Steve braced himself against Bucky's back and the Bartons did the same against his. The line held still and true, stretching across the water. Sam stepped up onto it and balanced himself, his hands out to each side, then nodded.

Bobbi made a little pained noise and a bundle of cloth soared over Steve's head to splash into the water as far away from the line as possible. "That might help, Sam. I cut my arm and bled on the cloth. Should keep the killer mommy over on that side of the tank, looking for prey."

Sam nodded again and started his walk.

Clint had long ago taught the entire team to rope walk. It was just too useful a skill to neglect. He, Bobbi and Nat could sprint on taut lines, do acrobatic tricks, generally play the fool. He and Nat could also do the most amazing slack rope work, bowed and swaying. It was a huge treat to watch them train together, like watching two people dance in freefall. 

Sam was good at it but not great so his walk was slower than Clint's would have been, but steady and firm. The shark's fin teased and troubled the surface of the water over by where Bobbi had thrown the cloth. 

Bucky was making hissing noises, the servos in his arm whining audibly as it strained to hold Sam's weight and anchor the line.

"You okay?" Steve muttered to him under his breath.

"Ungh...yeah. Just pulling at the scar tissue is all. Still hurts after all these years." Bucky paused and continued, slower and tentative. "I guess it'll never stop hurting, right? But if I get...treatment...it'll hurt less?"

"Yeah. And you'd be amazed what some of these people can fix if you give them a chance. Arms. Heads." Steve stopped and looked away. "Hearts."

"Oh, that one I already knew, punk," Bucky said with a little laugh. Sam made it to far ledge and stepped off, raising his arms in triumph.

And that was when the floor under them started to tilt up. The Bartons slid into Steve at the same time, and the solid shock transmitted to Bucky who yelped in pain. The rope, still anchored by Bucky's arm, remained taut by main force of Steve's upper body

Bobbi and Clint spun off of Steve's back, relieving the pressure on him for a moment as he folded over top of Bucky, still using his clenched fingers to hold them both as still as possible.

The splash as the Bartons hit the water sent the questing fin of the bull shark diving under the surface. Bobbi snapped her goggles down--of course, that would let her track the animal beyond visual range--and she shoved Clint behind her, against the wall of the tank. Steve felt Bucky's body shaking with pain and tensionand let go of the rope. He dove neatly into the water, followed the next second by Bucky. They both stroked over to the Bartons. 

"Bucky, Clint, swim for the other side, Bobbi where's the shark?" Steve yelled.

"Down, she went down, and...fuck, here she comes!"

Steve ducked under the water and opened his eyes, saw motion and spun away. The shark arrowed past him like a living freight train, her rough skin sawing at his uniform, which held. There was a confusion in the water above him and suddenly the shark was falling back down past him, then whipped itself around and darted away. Steve surfaced to see the others all heading for the other platform at speed, no red streaks in the water behind them. He followed, rolling out of the way as Bobbi stopped once and spun in a circle, clearly looking for the shark, then started swimming again.

They all made it to the other side in a time that would have won Olympic gold. Steve hauled himself out of the water and looked at his gasping, panting team. "What happened?"

Bobbi pointed at Clint. "He punched a shark." She said in a child-like voice. "Why do you guys keep punching endangered species around me?"

Steve blinked at her, then heard a sound he could get used to hearing again. Bucky Barnes was lying on his back, laughing so hard he started to wheeze. Sam was sitting next to him, also laughing and then the Bartons were laughing too. Steve shook his head fondly at them, stood up and smashed the cover over the lever with his elbow and pulled it. 

There was a pause and the water in the tank started to drain. As it went down they all saw the agitated but apparently unharmed bull shark dart towards an opening and out into what looked like open ocean. The door opened into another corrider that sloped upwards, showing them daylight at the end.

Dripping seawater and good humor, the five Avengers started towards their freedom.

**Epilouge**

"Thar she blows," said Tony Stark, pointing at the small pontoon where five figures had just emerged. 

From her deck chair, Natasha Romanoff looked up from her book. "Anyone missing a limb? Other than James; we know about that one."

"They are not substantially injured, Ms Romanoff. Bruises and strains; Mr Barton appears to have skinned his knuckles," reported Jarvis blandly.

"They've spotted us," Bruce called from the upper deck of the Starkyacht, where he was lounging with a tumbler of lemonade. He sounded unhappy.

The four of the figures dove into the water--the fifth spread wide metal wings and launched himself joyously into the air. 

Tony snorted. "They're going to rip her head off buddy, but I'm sure you'll be safe."

"Sure, Tony, because Steve and Bobbi are both known for glossing over small details," Bruce called back, gulping. 

Sam circled in the air until the other four had swum up to the yacht. It was big enough that the Quinjet had its own landing pad at the stern, resting serenely in the bright sunlight. Tony flipped a rope ladder over the side and one by one they all clambered up. 

Bucky was last and as his dripping wet feet hit the deck, Sam landed next to him. They all glowered at the people who'd been waiting for them. Bruce started to inch backwards from the railing, looking for exits. Tony kept mixing himself something in a big glass topped with fruit and a little umbrella. Natasha looked up and smiled, twitching down her sunglasses down to peer over them.

"Everyone all better then?" she said in a mild voice.

Bucky took a deep breath, fists clenched, and then just stopped breathing, seeming unable to find words to even start berating his lover. Steve was staring at her with narrowed eyes; so was Sam. Bobbi had a bland expression on her face but she was mostly watching the men.

It was Clint who broke the silence. "Nat. You. Sicced. A. Shark. On. Us." He spat out the words like bullets. 

Natasha nodded, then sat up looking worried. "Did you hurt her?"

"No, sestra, we did not harm the pregnant shark we are not monsters," Bobbi said very quietly. Sam pointed at Clint, raising an eyebrow at her. "All right, Clint punched the shark but she was swimming fine when we saw her last and I'm inclined to think it'll do her no lasting damage." 

"Good," Natasha said with a nod and settled back down, eyes going to her book again.

"What the hell Nat?" Bucky suddenly yelled, his voice pure Brooklyn, with no hesitation or that lingering Russian accent he got sometimes. Steve started and a smile flashed across his mouth, ruthlessly suppressed. 

"You all needed a good talking too," she supplied. "This seemed more efficient."

"Dumping us in the water with a bull shark was your _efficient_ idea? What do you do for an encore, throw poisonous snakes?" Sam said, incredulously. 

"Worked, didn't it?" she responded. Studying them, she took her sunglasses right off. Bobbi and Clint were both starting to grin, drifting closer to each other. Sam was shaking his head and moving towards the bar. Bucky was seething--and it looked very fetching on him, all flying locks of hair and pouty lips. 

She focused on Steve, still silent in the midst of it all. They locked eyes and stared at each other till the rest of them fell silent around them. Slowly, Natasha stood up and lifted her chin, not backing down. Steve nodded and ran one hand through his hair. 

"Yes. It did work. Which isn't the same as being a good idea. But right now: I'm wet, sticky and tired. I'll...deal...with you later." He looked over at Tony, watching avidly from the side line. "Tell me you have clothes for us, Stark."

"Yes indeed. Cabins one level down, Jarvis'll direct you." Stark waved his drink laden hand at the gangway. Steve stomped over and disappeared, ignoring Natasha's suddenly appalled and worried expression.

"You sowed it, Nat, now reap," laughed Clint. 

"Yeah, I'm suddenly okay with everything and wondering what bathing suits we have waiting for us," said Bobbi. She stuck her arm through Clint's and they followed after Steve. Sam, high and dry, was already at a bar stool being handed a rum and ginger ale by Tony. Bruce had settled back down since none of them were paying attention to him, looking relieved. 

That left the Winter Soldier and Black Widow eyeing each other. She opened her mouth and he held up his hand, stop. She stopped. He moved very close to her, making her look up into his face. "Milli Moy," he said, his voice thick and deep and velvety as his eyes. "I am unspeakably...annoyed with you." He leaned down and kissed her on the mouth, soft and sweet. "And thank you from the bottom of my heart."

*****  
\Bruce Banner came to lying on the floor of his cabin, feeling groggy and sick. The walls weren't smashed open so he hadn't hulked out but...what had happened? They'd all been together on the deck having a meal, the whole crew in bathing suits. With Thor, War Machine and the support crew holding the fort in New York, they were debating spending another day out on the ocean, just relaxing. Steve still hadn't said anything to Natasha and she was starting to look physically ill.

He staggered out into the corridor, the lights bright against his squinting eyes. Right, he'd gone back down to get his spare glasses and then...something had happened? A noise or a light or...

The ship was silent. He should be able to hear Tony or Clint even from the front deck.

The remains of their meal was still on the table, glasses tipped over, food cold. 

Everyone was gone. 

Panic surged through him, sending a green mist over his vision. He ground his fists into his thighs, forcing the Hulk to listen to him. "No, smashing isn't going to help here. There's nothing to smash. Nothing but...." He paused for a moment.

"Jarvis!" Bruce yelped. "Jarvis, where is everyone!"

The AI's smooth, cultured voice sounded from a near by speaker. "Voice recognition activated, Banner, Bruce confirmed. Rebooting."

Bruce gulped down nausea, waiting for the AI to come back on line. When it did he yelled his question again ...

...and got the worst possible answer.

"Doctor Banner...I cannot locate Mr Stark or any of the others anywhere near by. In fact, I cannot locate Mr Stark anywhere on the planet."


End file.
